California Tables Plans for RF Enhanced Driver's License

EDLs contain a RFID chip and let you rapidly reenter the U.S. at a land border without needing a passport. Proponents in California want to alleviate congestion at the Mexico border. Opponents worry about privacy. Larry Greenemeier reports

The California state senate recently passed a bill to offer driver’s licenses embedded with radio-frequency ID chips. It would have made California the first state bordering Mexico to offer so-called Enhanced Driver’s Licenses, EDLs. But the state’s Assembly Appropriations Committee shelved those plans.

EDLs let you rapidly reenter the U.S. at a land border without needing a passport. They’re already available in Michigan, New York, Vermont and Washington. The California committee ostensibly put its EDL plan on ice because they didn’t want to pay a few million dollars a year for it.